Post box to front of, Mechanics Institute, Market Street, Lurgan

Victorian era cast-iron post box of 1881-85 set close to the front of the Mechanic’s Institute building in Main Street, Lurgan. The box is rectangular in profile and roughly square in footprint, measuring approx. 1.2m in height and 0.5 x 0.5m in plan. It was designed to be recessed within a wall, but has ended up as virtually free-standing, set between a stone wall pier to the NW and a decorative wrought-iron rail to the SE. The door (with notice plate) takes up around two-thirds of the front with a projecting course just above this. Above again is the aperture, with ‘POST OFFICE’ embossed on its hood, and directly over this is the royal cipher – the letters ‘V’ and ‘R’ with the crown motif in between. The front has a raised edge with a similar edge around the door opening and the notice plate. The SE face is completely plain; the NW face appears to be also, also it is largely obscured by the neighbouring pier. The rear is plain also but is partly obscured, this time by a corrugated-iron ‘shute’. This may have allowed access internally although there is no evidence of this from inside the building. The box is painted red, in the manner of its wall and pillar box counterparts.